Thinking about buying some 2014 Saint Damien Gigondas and tried to find more about the vintage but the info is limited. I did find that this vintage in Chateauneuf du Pape is not seen as one of the best and as Gigondas is not far away I was wondering if that also accounts? will this wine be cellerable?
Galloni gave a pretty good 91/93 rating for these wines. Anybody here has experience with the vintage yet?
There was rain around harvest all over the Southern Rhone area. The wines are not as rich as those of big, hot vintages. But the best of them can be elegant and complex with good body. The St. Damien is one of those. If richness is your primary desire, you are better off looking for St. Damien in 12 or 15. But the 14 is a very good wine.
I visited Charvin and Moulin Tacussel in Chateauneuf a week ago. I was told that 2014 was a difficult vintage and wouldn’t be for long aging, but the '14s at both places were quite nice, and Charvin’s '14 Cotes du Rhone was really yummy. So I wouldn’t write off the vintage. As Jonathan said, Gigondas isn’t far from CdP.
Here’s a pic of Gigondas I took.
I don’t know about Moulin Tacussel, having never tasted it. But it is very dsngerous to generalize from Charvin. He couldn’t make bad wine if he tried. Actually, that. is surely false. He is a smart guy and could certainly make objectionable wine if he wanted to. Fortunately for all of us, he doesn’t. Still, the quality of his wines is never generalizable.
Great picture John with that contract between the vines and the more darker background. I love the town during summer, not too big and has a cosy feel to it (and some good restaurants). How is visiting the region during winter?
The lack of richness in '14 is not a biggie for me as I like the more elegant and complex style. I will go ahead and order some bottles, and try some regular cdr as well. I’ll report back when I open the first bottle!
Agree mostly with Jonathan above: not the strongest vintage in the Southern Rhone, but the top-producers made good to vg wines, and they should without a problem evolve for 10,12, 15 years … usually good balance, slightly lighter than 2012 and 2015, but elegant and earlier drinkable …
I only tasted at Brusset (in Gigondas) - and the wines were excellent … but I´ve tasted a lot in CdP …
In a word: cold!
But it was sunny except for a bit of fog and haze a couple of days. I posted notes and more photos in this thread.
Except for Chateauneuf, which was quite alive, the area seemed quite dead. I couldn’t find anyplace to get a quick coffee in Gigondas, Vacqueyras or any other town on my way back to the autoroute at the end of the day.
We are generally here from the middle of December to the middle of January. It is a good time to visit wineries but not a good time to be a tourist. Restaurants and hotels take their yearly holidays (those that don’t just close down from November to March). All those people you didn’t see were seeing family and friends. But the caveau in Gigondas was surely open and you could have had tasting there.
Jonathan
is the caveau in Gigondas tasting still free -with a jar for donations on the counter? Been many yrs since I was there.
Yes, it is still free. It is run cooperatively by the winemakers so that you can taste and buy without having to go from domaine to domaine, if you don’t want to.
There is a similar caveau in Cairanne, also run by the winemakers. And there is a new one in Vacqueyras, run by a young woman. All of these offer free tastings.
Not that it’s that close, but I’m told that there’s one in Bandol, as well.